Christians are never alone. In everything we do, a presence is with us, and that presence is God the Holy Spirit. In 2 Corinthians 13:14, Paul prayed, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Every Christian has communion with the Holy Spirit.
Who the Holy Spirit is
The Holy Spirit is not a mysterious or eerie power. He is a person, and He is God. The Godhead consists of God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Spirit. When Jesus gave the apostles the Great Commission (“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” Matthew 28:18-20), he listed the Holy Spirit alongside himself and God. The angel told Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). The apostles received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and spoke in tongues (Acts 2).
Where the Holy Spirit dwells
The Holy Spirit resides in the Christian: “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him” (Romans 8:9). The Holy Spirit dwells in our minds (or hearts); in the New Testament, the heart is the thinking part of man. “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:6). And Ephesians 4:22-24: “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” The Holy Spirit also dwells in our bodies. In 1 Corinthians 6:18-20, Paul warns the church at Corinth about sexual immorality: “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” By engaging in sexual immorality, we are desecrating the temple of the Holy Spirit—our bodies. “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30).
What the Holy Spirit does
The Holy Spirit leads us; Romans 8:14 says, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” In the New Testament church, when spiritual gifts were active, the Holy Spirit led through direct revelation, or prophecy. Now we are led through indirect revelation, in the Bible and the written word of the apostles.
The Holy Spirit bears witness that we are children of God (Romans 8:16). To be a child of God, we must confess Christ is Lord, repent, be baptized; then, with the Holy Spirit bearing witness to our spirit, we are children of God.
The Holy Spirit helps us overcome sin. “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13). God doesn’t prevent us from sinning by some mysterious power; we have free will. And we are not free from the temptation to sin, but God is faithful and provides us a way to bear it.
The Holy Spirit strengthens our inner being. Ephesians 3:16: “...that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.” In his letters, Paul frequently contrasts the outer being (the physical self) with the inner (the spiritual self). In 2 Corinthians 4:16, he wrote, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.” It’s hard to live the Christian life day after day, but if we trust in the Holy Spirit, He’ll give us the strength we need.
The Holy Spirit intercedes for us. Since mankind fell in sin, we have been plagued by tribulation and suffering. All of us have dealt with sickness, pain, and sorrow. So we wait for the hope and glory of redemption. Romans 8:26: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” When we don’t know the proper words, the Holy Spirit petitions God on our behalf.
The Holy Spirit marks us for redemption. Ephesians 1:13 says we are “sealed,” or marked, with the Holy Spirit in baptism. While we wait for the day of redemption, we have been marked as apart from the world. And when that day comes, all of us who have been sealed with the Holy Spirit will be taken up to Heaven.
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